Picker-stick buffer for looms.



Patented May 27, I902. F. A. MILLS.

PIGKER STICK BUFFER FUR LOUMS.

v (Application filed Oct. 29, 1901.)

(No Model.)

m: cams wzrzns co. PNOTO-UYNQ, WASHINGTON. n, c.

Nrrnn STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRANCIS ARTHUR MILLS, OF METHUEN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-HALF TO GROSVENOR B. EMMONS, OF METI-IUEN, MASSACHUSETTS.

PlCKER-STICK BUFFER FOR LOOMS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 700,965, dated May 27, 1902.

Application filed October 29, 1901. Serial No. 80,391. (No model.)

To all whom it 72mg concern:

Beit known that I, FRANCIS ARTHUR MILLS, a citizen of the United States, residing at Methuen, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Bufiers for the Picker-Sticks 0f Looms, of which the follow ing is a specification.

In a patent granted to me December 25, 1900, for pneumatic shuttle and picker-staff buffer for looms is shown, described, and claimed a pneumatic rubber buffer arranged upon the race-lay and adapted to receive the directimpact of a hard button-bunter secured to and carried on the picker-stick. I have found that such direct impact of the hard button-bunter upon the rubber surface of the pneumatic buffer tends to and does rub or chafe and wears it. This not only results from the impact of the hard button, but from the freeness which the picker-stick has in its movements in the slot in the race-lay, which causes its button to strike with a slight sidewise action on the rubber at the moment of contact. Not only does my improvement avoid this damaging of the pneumatic buffer, but it provides a more important advantage by arranging the button-bunter as a fixed center upon the pneumatic rubber buffer, whereby the impact of the picker-stick is delivered upon the button, so that the latter becomes the means of receiving and delivering the impact centrally upon the pneumatic buffer without abrading eifect. In this new combination of button-bunter with the pneumatic rubber buffer the trouble of placing the button-bunter in the precise place on the picker-stick so as to cause it to deliver its blow exactly upon the center of the crown pneumatic rubberbuffer, of securing the button-bunter so that it cannot become loose on the picker-stick, and in the weakening of the stick in the fastening thereto of the button by boring holes in the stick are all avoided by the employment as a single device on the race-lay an unyielding button-bunter and apneumatic rubber bufier, both having convex surfaces in perpetual contact.

The following description and the claims appended thereto, read in connection with the accompanying drawings, will particularly set out the parts and combinations of parts which constitute the invention.

In the drawings, Figure 1 shows so much of a race-lay and the picker-stick of a loom as illustrates the use therewith of my combined button-bunter and pneumatic rubber bufier employed as an entirety on the race-lay to receive the impact of the picker-stick and of the shuttle. Fig. 2 shows this combined button-hunter and buffer device in section. Fig. 3 is a face view of the same. Fig. 4: shows the outer face of the button-hunter and its keeper or holder part. Fig. 5 shows the inner face of the same. Fig. 6 shows enlarged in section the button-bunter constituting a receiving and a delivering face part.

The picker-stick 1 travels in-the slot 2 of the race-lay and is provided with the usual picker 3 for throwing and for receiving the impact of the shuttle.

For cushioning the return of the pickerstick after having thrown the shuttle and for cushioning the impact of the shuttle upon the picker on the picker-stick when the latter is at rest the pneumatic rubber bufier 4 of my said patent is employed. As seen in Fig. 1, this rubber buffer is seated and sealed in a bracket or casing 5, attached to and depending from the end of the race-lay6 in the path of the picker-stick and which forms an air-chamber behind the rubber buffer and into which chamber the bufier is collapsed without resilient effect by the impact of the picker-stick, and thereby prevents the rebound of the shuttle.

In the non-resilient action of the pneumatic rubber buffer a small Vent 7 in the chamber-casing cooperates.

In Fig. 2 the pneumatic rubber bufier is shown in the form of a cup, preferably less than half a sphere, terminating in abase peripheral flange seated in a self-locking groove and forming thereby the air-chamber in perpetual communication with the air vent. Supplementing the crown of this rubber cup is abutton-bunter, on which the impact of the picker-stick is delivered with a non-resilient cushioning effect upon the picker-stick by reason of the yielding action of the rubber bufier and the perpetual contact therewith of the button-hunter. A button-banter S of some unyielding material for this purpose has the form of aconvex knob and is held centrally in contact with the crown of the 'rubber bufier, so that normally the rubber buifer maintains its arched or convex form. In this position the button-hunter is held by means of a keeper or holder, preferably of some flexible material, such as leather, and a simple form of such keeper is a piece of leather having finger branches 9, each finger having a buttonhole 10, by which it is looped or fastened over the head of a screw 11 in the rim of the seating-bracket of the pneumatic buffer. This keeper or holder is fastened on the outer fiat side of the button-hunter, preferably by one or more leather disks 12, which supplements the button-bunter and, in fact, constitutes a part of it, the outer flat leather part 12 receiving the impact of the pickerstick and the inner convex unyielding part 8 delivering the impact of the picker-stick upon the crown of the pneumatic rubber buffer. These two button-hunter parts are therefore on opposite sides of the keeper or holder, and a simple means for fastening them together and to the keeper is a rivet 13, the outer end of which is clenched in a metal washer 14, sunk in the leather disk, whereby the receiving and the delivering bunter parts are centrally clamped together, while the keeper or holder retains this bunter device in position upon the crown of the pneumatic rubber buffer. This contact of the button-hunter and the pneumatic buffer will be maintained not only under the impact of the picker-stick in collapsing the pneumatic buffer, but in the return of the latter to its normal position, the hunter and the buffer parts moving together as a single device in which the maintenance of their contact is effected by the setting of the keeper of the button-hunter to the fixed bracket with respect to the arched surface of the pneumatic rubber buffer and the capacity of the keeper to move in and out with the button and the buffer.

Looking at Fig. 1, it is important to note that in the operation of the loom the pickerstick, as seen in dotted lines, lays against the fiat receiving side of the button-bunter in receiving the impact of the picker-stick when the shuttle strikes the picker on the picker-stick, and in order that the flat side of the button-bunter will receive the flat side of the picker-stick flush with the full flat face of the button-hunter the bracket of the buffor device is set at a slight inward angle from a vertical line.

As shown, the hard button-hunter is riveted to three thicknesses of leather, which form the receiving impact part of the buffer device; but obviously the invention resides in supplementing the pneumatic buffer with a button-hunter however the latter may be constructed so long as it receives the impact of the picker-stick and serves as the medium of transmitting such impact to the rubber buffer. I have shown this combined hunter applied at the inner end of the race-lay slot to cushion the shuttle-throwing blow of the picker-stick. I I

To maintain the contact of the buttonbunter with the crown of the rubber bufier, it is important to note that the keeper or holder for the button-bunter must have a yielding or flexible function, so that the bunter and the buffer must yield together under the impact of the picker-stick caused by the impact of the shuttle. It is also important to note that the strap-keeper, together with its button and its disk, has a movement in a direction corresponding to the movement of the picker-stick, and that the disk has a flat surface to receive the impact of the pickerstiok to prevent it from being broken under the force of the impact, and that such fiat surface protects the rubber hemisphere from the direct blows of the picker-stick and from the destruction which would result from such direct contact, and that by its connection with the strap it is free to yield in any direction under the blow of, the picker-stick.

1. A buffer device for the picker-sticks of looms consisting of a pneumatic rubber buffer of hemispherical form, a holder therefor, a convex button contacting with the crown of the buffer, a flexible strap-keeper attached to the back of the button having branches extending over said buffer and fastened to the holder thereof around the base of the buffer, a leather disk forming abacking for said strap and a screw centrally fastening together the button, the strap and the leather disk.

2. A bufler device for the picker-sticks of looms consisting of a pneumatic rubber buffer of hemispherical form, a holder therefor a convex button contacting with the crown of the buffer, and a strap-keeper for the button having branches extending over said bufier and fastened to the holder around the base of the buffer, a disk forming a backing for the strap to receive the impact of the pickerstick and means for centrally fastening the impact disk to the button and its strapkeeper.

3. In a loom and in combination, the racelay, the pickerstick, a bracket depending from the race-lay, a hemispherical rubber buffer seated in the bracket, a hunter consisting of a convex button contacting with the crown of the rubber buffer, a fiat leather surface forming a backing for the button, a strap covering the buffer and having buttonholes for fastening it to and around the-rim of the bracket, and means for securing the button and the impact flat surface centrally to the strap.

4. A bunter-bulfer device for the pickersticks of looms consisting of a pneumatic rubber buffer of hemispherical form, a convex race-lay and the picker-stick, of a buffer (16-, vice consisting of a bracket on the lay, an arched pneumatic rubber bufier, a convex button-bunter supplementing the crown of the rubber bufier and a flexible keeper or holder for maintaining the convex surfaces of the bufier and of the hunter in contact under the impact of the picker-stick.

In testimony whereof I afiix my signature in presence of two Witnesses.

FRANCIS ARTHUR MILLS.

Witnesses:

ALFRED DOBSEN, DUNCAN WOOD. 

